You may receive an important fax without knowing who the sender is. In such a situation, you can use the fax number and the method presented in this Techspirited article to trace its origins.
Faxing involves scanning a document and sending it electronically over the telephone line to a distant location, where it is reproduced as a document via a printer. Since telephone lines are used in this process, it is possible to trace the origin and information about the sender by obtaining and tracing the number from which it was sent. In the following lines, we run you through an easy method for tracing a fax.
Tracing a Fax Number
Step #1
First things first, check out the fax itself as you would mostly find the number from which it was sent, mentioned either at the top or the bottom of the page, along with the date of transmission, time and page number. Note down this number along with the area code, as it will be required if the fax was sent from a region not within your calling area.
Step #2
Armed with the phone number, log on to the Internet and search for a telephone look-up site. These are akin to phone books, and provide you all the information you can get from a regular phone book and much more. These online directories provide a number of different ways to look up a person and obtain relevant information and details. You will need to use a good online directory such as 411.com to track a fax number.
Step #3
On 411.com, you would find a tab which says ‘reverse phone’. Click on that and once it opens, enter the fax number you wish to trace. Click on ‘Search’, to be redirected to a new page where you would likely find sufficient information (if that listing is available) on the number you have entered.
Most often than not it will bring up the name and address of the owner of that phone line. In case the number belongs to an organization or a firm, the information produced will include its name and location. The information pertaining to the address too, will usually be replete with street address, city and state.
Step #4
If the number is not listed, then the online directory won’t be able to bring up any information. In such cases, often the name of the carrier i.e. the phone company which that person uses will be the only thing mentioned. You should try using different online phone directories as one might have information that is not present in another.
Whichever site you look in, just keep a watch out for ‘reverse phone look-up’ or ‘reverse phone’. Since most popular telephone directory websites function in similar ways, this should enable you to use them and trace the fax number.
If a fax number is present online, for example on a company’s webpage, or someone has placed it in their signature or a web advertisement, it may be possible to trace it directly by simply entering that number on a search engine (eg: Google), and running a search for it.